Perhaps it’s the irresistibly charming label, or the fact it’s made by a guy in Rochester and produced in small batches in Bergen; or perhaps it’s the genuine graciousness of the “guy” – Paul Guglielmo, himself. But really, the appeal of Guglielmo’s pasta sauces is most likely because the tasty products are made from simple, straightforward ingredients that really let the flavor shine through.
Whatever it is that brings you to purchase Guglielmo’s Home Grown sauce, it’s likely you will sense the strong emotional connection Paul has to the product that bears his family name.
The 32-year old grew up in Conneaut, Ohio, eating dinner every Sunday at his Grandpa Pete’s home. The weekly tradition included the hearty sauce created by Paul’s great-grandmother during the Depression.
“She turned her entire yard into a garden,” Paul explains. She and her neighbors worked to provide each other with homemade food items, which they traded.
“She made the sauce,” Paul says of his great-grandmother. “It’s really an American sauce because she made it from tomatoes, vegetables and herbs that can be grown in this climate.”
Paul’s Grandpa Pete was the youngest of her eight children and growing up he helped his mother to make the sauce.
“My grandfather kept the tradition going every Sunday,” Paul says.
People frequently told Grandpa Pete to bottle the delicious sauce, but he never did, Paul says. When Paul reached his mid-twenties, he started asking himself, “Could I do it for him?”
With no business background and no idea where to start, Paul began by Googling for information available on-line about commercially producing a family food product.
Paul had learned from Grandpa Pete all about the art-side of the sauce – the product itself, but he had to learn about the business side, he says.
Armed with his family recipe, Paul – who moved to the Rochester area in 2007 – went to the NYS Food Venture Center – associated with Cornell University – in Geneva, and worked with them to develop a commercial recipe from his family recipe.
The center provided a list of co-packers for production of the sauce and Paul ended up choosing Permac Enterprises Inc. (Coach Tony’s) in Bergen because they were geared towards small batch production and because they were approved to use meat in their products.
Paul worked with Permac to select ingredients – all of which could be grown in Western New York. “We want consistency in the products,” he says.
Looking back, Paul says those initial steps and hoops through which he had to jump were the easy part of starting his business.
“It was hard taking the sauce out into the public and getting people to buy it,” he says. “It’s no secret,” Paul confesses tongue-in-cheek, “I didn’t invent pasta sauce. Why should stores carry my sauce?”
He visited local groceries and studied shelves of pasta sauces, which he found mostly bragged about being gourmet or being a better value.
Paul says he decided he wanted to make an emotional connection with customers because of his own emotional attachment to the sauce.
“I wanted to reach out to people’s hearts,” he explains. “My family is very tight, food has a lot of emotional connections. We wanted the label to say, ‘I love you.’ ”
The unusual labels feature sweet children’s book-like illustrations of Paul and his Grandpa Pete and tell the story of the sauce.
“No other sauce was cute,” he says. Another unique aspect of the label is that Paul’s phone number is on every jar, so customers can call him directly with feedback.
Paul’s family is thrilled and very supportive of his venture. The most rewarding part, Paul says, was the reaction of his grandfather.
“My grandpa was still alive (when the sauce first came out). He got to see his name on the jar on the shelf. That’s the best part,” Paul says.
Paul says he enjoys cooking and is determined that the weekly pasta tradition continue. “I insist on sauce every Sunday,” he says.
Guglielmo’s Home Grown Sauces are available locally at Tops and Wegmans, including the Spencerport Tops and Brockport Wegmans. It is also available on the westside at A.N.G. Shurfine in Churchville, Big M in Gates, Food Towne in North Chili, Margio’s Diner and Mel’s Diner in Greece and Zarpentine’s in Hilton.
